[Closed] Are you scared of the dark?

I like it. Night ride on my own a fair bit and quite often stop and turn my lights off for a bit just to see how dark the woods get.

I don't like flying and that's irrational and inexplicable to most.

is it like a phobia?

Presumably it's not "like" a phobia but is, in fact, a phobia.

Caher - Member
I don't like flying and that's irrational and inexplicable to most.
POSTED 3 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Planes crash and people die all the time.

The dark won't kill you.

I like the dark, but it can be creepy at times. I ride some pretty remote areas and it's often in the back of my mind that I could bump into some unsavoury characters who may just want to take advantage of the low light... I've always felt much safer away from the roads and away from people, but maybe that's another fear all together? I think that's partly rational though. Maybe partly exaggerated too.

I do sometimes get creeped out round the house after lights out too mind. But I think that goes back to watching too many horror movies as a kid.

I thought phobias were pathological fears Cougar.

Thanks Butcher, that's more the sort of thing I was wondering.

I thought phobias were pathological fears Cougar.

You'll have to elaborate on that.

Or rather, you won't, I just don't know what you mean.

I've bumped into unsavoury characters lots, rarely in the dark and almost never anywhere remote. I wonder what makes you think the way you do.

The dark won't kill you.

But it can hide things that might.

On my second solo ride I turned off my lights and sat looking at the lights of Blackpool to Manchester in the distance. Darkness is a leveller.

Those stringy bits on bananas. oh, the HORROR!!

But it can hide things that might.

So can cupboards. Are you scared of cupboards?

What can hide in a cupboard and kill you?

Well, all right, many things. What is likely to hide in a cupboard and kill you, I mean.

Sorry, Cougar do you mean you don't know what pathological means?
I'm using the definition "manifesting behavior that is habitual, maladaptive, and compulsive" 😉

I like darkness. I find it calming. that and the sea. I often sat on the rocks down by the beach at night staring out to sea for hours on my own as a kid.

What is likely to hide in a cupboard and kill you, I mean.

Its probably hard wired into us because lots of predators in Africa come out to play at night.

The mind can play some funny tricks on you, more so in the dark. With that in mind, whenever you might worry about bumping into a nutter in the middle of nowhere, more often than not, you might be the 'nutter' by the fact that your are there...

Sorry, Cougar do you mean you don't know what pathological means?

I know what the word means, I don't know what it means in the context you're using it.

Now you've explained, I'm not sure as I'm any nearer. Phobias are habitual fears? No doubt, most fears are. Is "irrational" a better word?

A Dyson

I need to stop drinking.

Or start.

One or the other, certainly.

Its probably hard wired into us because lots of predators in Africa come out to play at night.

You just need a big army bloke with a minigun.

possibly.. it just seems an awfully common fear but not actually all that debilitating for most. Personally I just wouldn't have called it phobia unless it was a lot more severe. I could be wrong. like I said I'm kinda black and white in my thoughts on a lot of things.

What can hide in a cupboard and kill you?

would need to be an awfully tall cupboard for a tin of spaghetti hoops to even knock you out. even the largest catering tin.

Often walk the dogs at night with no torch etc. Absolutely fine. Put me on a bike in the dark with a few hundred lumens at my disposal and I go all wobbly. Will happily ride solo at night and actually quite like it but often feel a bit uneasy.

Not sure whether it's the moving shadows as you ride through the trees, or the fact that the dogs add a potential layer of safety...

The mind is a wonderful thing, but it's also a naughty little gremlin.

I keep armed attack droids in my cupboards.

I do sometimes worry if the access programme codes fall into the wrong hands.

Cougar - Moderator

[b]The dark won't kill you.
[/b]

But it can hide things that might.

True dat.
Like very, very big drops.
Ever done the woken up in the morning, 'Arrrgh, look what I nearly fell/rode off' thing?
Awful.
Arse like a Morecamb Bay Prawn, sick feeling in stomach etc.....

hora - Member
Darkness is a leveller.

Darkness is a great friend to the terminally ugly.
I like the dark.
🙂

Ah... Now you mention it. years and years ago I rode to a girlfriends parents after work. it was about 90 miles of country roads so by the last few miles it was the middle of the night and very dark, I'd not had enough to eat and was feeling almost delirious. just before rounding corner before the final climb I looked to my right and saw a shadow, kind of like a large animal and it was moving at the same speed as me, I stood up to sprint away and it suddenly got more animated and sped up too. it finally clicked that there was a main A road running parallel but lower to the lane I was riding and the beasts shadow was actually mine! 😳 pissed myself laughing all the way up the climb. 😆

So yeah, I do get that shadows can give you a fright, but they can give you a fright in daylight too.

Chuck Norris uses a night light. Not because Chuck Norris is afraid of the dark, but because the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris.

Darkness is a great friend to the terminally ugly.

I'm scared of people that only see things in black or white...

that is some truly insane ****ed up shit

Sometimes I'm scared of the dark... other times I hide in it waiting for you

Walking back from a mates house a couple of years ago about 2am after watching a pay per view boxing match.

I turned down a short side street in order to loop back to my place when I first noticed him. At the far end of the street, on my side, was the silhouette of a man, dancing. It was a strange dance, similar to a waltz, but he finished each "box" with an odd forward stride. I guess you could say he was dance-walking, headed straight for me.
Deciding he was probably drunk, I stepped as close as I could to the road to give him the majority of the footpath to pass me on. The closer he got, the more I realized how gracefully he was moving. He was very tall and lanky, and wearing an old suit. He danced closer still, until I could make out his face. His eyes were open wide and wild, head tilted back slightly, looking off at the sky. His mouth was formed in a painfully wide cartoon of a smile. Between the eyes and the smile, I decided to cross the street before he danced any closer.
I took my eyes off of him to cross the empty street. As I reached the other side, I glanced back... and then stopped dead in my tracks. He had stopped dancing and was standing with one foot in the street, perfectly parallel to me. He was facing me but still looking skyward. Smile still wide on his lips.
I was completely and utterly unnerved by this. I started walking again, but kept my eyes on the man. He didn't move.
Once I had put about half a block between us, I turned away from him for a moment to watch the sidewalk in front of me. The street and sidewalk ahead of me were completely empty. Still unnerved, I looked back to where he had been standing to find him gone. For the briefest of moments I felt relieved, until I noticed him. He had crossed the street, and was now slightly crouched down. I couldn't tell for sure due to the distance and the shadows, but I was certain he was facing me. I had looked away from him for no more than 10 seconds, so it was clear that he had moved fast.
I was so shocked that I stood there for some time, staring at him. And then he started moving toward me again. He took giant, exaggerated tip toed steps, as if he were a cartoon character sneaking up on someone. Except he was moving very, very quickly.
I'd like to say at this point I ran away or pulled out my pepper spray or my cellphone or anything at all, but I didn't. I just stood there, completely frozen as the smiling man crept toward me.
And then he stopped again, about a car length away from me. Still smiling his smile, still looking to the sky.
When I finally found my voice, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. What I meant to ask was, "What the **** do you want?!" in what I hoped angry, tone. "What the fuu…?"
Regardless of whether or not humans can smell fear, they can certainly hear it. I heard it in my own voice, and that only made me more afraid. But he didn't react to it at all. He just stood there, smiling.
And then, after what felt like forever, he turned around, very slowly, and started dance-walking away. Just like that. Not wanting to turn my back to him again, I just watched him go, until he was far enough away to almost be out of sight. And then I realized something. He wasn't moving away anymore, nor was he dancing. I watched in horror as the distant shape of him grew larger and larger. He was coming back my way. And this time he was running.
I ran too.
I ran until I was off of the side road and back onto a better lit road with sparse traffic. Looking behind me then, he was nowhere to be found. The rest of the way home, I kept glancing over my shoulder, always expecting to see his stupid smile, but he was never there.
I lived in that city for six months after that night, and I never went out for another walk. There was something about his face that always haunted me. He didn't look drunk, he didn't look high. He looked completely and utterly insane.

No I don't like the dark !!

pills mate

Cool story bro
http://www.wattpad.com/98771481-ghost-stories-the-smiling-man-no-not-jeff-the

and I like you too Yunki 😉

I swear I've read that somewhere on reddit..

Edit: yeah, that one that mikewsmith linked.

Not even for a minute ?

Just knew I should of replaced the "sidewalk" before pasting it in

Damn

I've got a superb ghost story which happened to me and I'm not going to repeat, but I treasure the memory

Even so, I love the dark - up on the fells, in the forest, sailing, kayaking - if its dark so much the better. Nothing gives you the feeling that you are part of the earth than being at home in the dark.

Obviously this only works in wilderness situations - being on my own in a city at night generally scares the bejeesus out of me

Aww Winston

Come on give it, no need to repeat, once will do.

Does it involve severed heads being banged on car roofs ?

Lol genuinely believed that story when I was 7

But.....no.

Nighty night

Ghosts ... they like the dark.

I'm not scared [i]of[/i] the dark, but I am definitely more on edge [i]in[/i] the dark. I think it's to do with being very easily reassured that there's nothing to worry about when I can see things.

I am also somewhat troubled by the imaginary possibility of sharks when I swim in the sea, again, I think because I can imagine them, but cannot easily verify that they are not there.

🙂

and I like you too mtbel... 🙂

What can hide in a cupboard and kill you?

A suicide doner.

I'm using the definition "manifesting behavior that is habitual, maladaptive, and compulsive"

Well if you want definitions. A phobia is an unrealistic fear of something that generally will cause no harm.

If this was America we could own all manner of weaponry incase anyone came into the house.

My biggest fear would be having to store, look after and worry about said-firearms accidently discharging.

Meanwhile in 'merica they'd be drinking cans of bud and shooting targets for youtube viewing..

because our primary sense is our eyes, and that the predator that probably evolved to hunt Australopithecus anamensis probably (like a lot of predatory cats) had great night vision means that our amygdela reminds us that the dark is not a place to linger.

Or

We predominately choose to live largely indoors in the current world, our early brain wiring, plus societal group memory of horror films and childhood stories probably make people uneasy about being in in a (largely for them) alien environment

Pick one

Night ride on my own a fair bit and quite often stop and turn my lights off for a bit just to see how dark the woods get

I like to stand on the Chase on a dark cold, wet night, look at the soft glow of Stafford and listen to the racket coming from Rugeley

Have never had a problem with the dark although I prefer full sun and +30 degrees

Pook remember Snowdon- walking back to the digs in the pitch black and I legged it ahead. I was trying to set up an ambushpoint to get you but you buggers caught up before I could 😀

So you're saying it is a phobia Drac? I just asked a psychologist and they agreed with my definition that it's only becomes a phobia when it becomes a real problem.

NickC - I grew up watching horror from a very early age. No horrors scare me anymore.
I also spend more time than most outdoors and have quite a well developed night vision. I live in a very quiet rural location with country side to each direction and no outdoor lighting.

Don't really mind it tbh...commute in it a lot.

Nicer in the sticks than in the towns thou - less knobbers around.

My m8s a pain in it, sneaks up stealthly behind and slows me down by grabbing my courior bag.

[i]I also spend more time than most outdoors and have quite a well developed night vision.[/i]

In comparison to predators evolved to hunt in the dark you're practically blind. 😉

Read some of Halbwachs theories regarding group memory.

uponthedowns - Member
Its probably hard wired into us because lots of predators in Africa come out to play at night.

I also on occasion in the woods normally get the irrational fear of being stalked and up the pace a bit, it's dark you can't see properly.. that's all.

I just asked a psychologist and they agreed with my definition that it's only becomes a phobia when it becomes a real problem.

Well that's because you're talking to a Psychologist. Does a phobia have to be at the extent that it causes you huge anxiety and panic or can it be irrational to afraid of something without being at that level.

A phobia is an irrational fear of something. A clinical phobia is when it reaches levels you go into blind panic over it.

Butcher summed it up for me early on. I'm not scared of the dark, but it makes me cautious.

Phobia

NOUN

An extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something:

So it seems, you, I and psychologists are all correct Drac.

I still wouldn't ever describe most people who admit to being scared of the dark as having a phobia myself.

Hmmm ....

On a caravanning holiday in France one year when i was a kid - early teenage i'd say. We took a wrong turn one night and ended up down this dead end road in the pitch black in the middle of a huge southern french thunderstorm. The road was too narrow to back the car and van together, so my Dad and i unhitched the van and turned it round manually and then pulled it over to the edge of the road so we could 3 point turn the car, and then squeeze it past to rehitch and go back the way we came. No great dramas, except the road one side seemed to have a biggish drop on it, but it was so dark and the rain so heavy we couldn't really see what it was.

On arriving at the overnight stop we got the map out and retraced our steps. We'd had the back of the van swung over the edge of a dam/reservoir thing. Not a big one, but if we hadn't had it nose weighted properly, or one of the wheels had fallen off the side, it would have been in.

Probably best not to have seen it.......

Alongtime ago but vivid- we were in the middle of nowhere near the shore/cliff edge at night/pitch black in Ibiza when we came across two girls -both stood there in the pitch black fully clothed and expressionless staring at us.

You'd think 'doity girls' or druggies but it was very very weird. Thats the only time I've been unsettled. The inky darkness hides you too. Murderers dont have superhuman vision

(unless they are Ukrainian Separatists with magically supplied night vision kit)

Any wierdos and murderers now know where you all like to go in the pitch black..

be careful out there, wierdos, you might come across some late night sketchy mamils.

🙂

Not even for a minute ?

Just knew I should of replaced the "sidewalk" before pasting it in

Damn

I don't like the dark. No good reason, don't believe in spooky stuff, don't think I'm going to get murdered etc but don't like it!

When I was young I watched the Entity. I think it's that film where the Ghost pulls the woman out of bed by her feet which are sticking out the duvet.

I'm now very scared of sleeping with my feet sticking out of the duvet.

Also, when young I used to hear voices at night, and have dreams which were real premonitions and often came true a few days later with overwhelming déjà vu - hardly happens now - but I still get nervous if I can't explain noises at night.

My local woods are Eppjng Forest, allegedly the Krays and other essex gangsters dumping ground.

Vis a vis, you won't catch me out there solo, let alone without lights.

I love the dark I'm probably not clever enough to think about all the dangers it might hide 🙂

I also like to ride solo and sit in the dark at the remotest part of my local trails and watch the owls and badgers that live near by.

I was pretty nervous riding on my own at night/dawn/dusk on back roads when I was in America, in an area that has mountain lions.

Whenever I spooked herds of deer I had that nervous 'is it me spooking them or something else' thought...

Not scared of the dark, but years ago me and a mate had a really bad experience where we tried to help somebody out, it was in the countryside and very early in the morning, and we didn't expect to meet somebody there, he was a complete nutter or high on drugs (possibly both) and it nearly ended badly. It was one of the most dangerous experience i have had. It made me very cautious and in certain situations i still am today.

For that reason i sometimes feel worried out in the countryside in the dark on my own, and i really couldn't imagine going solo night riding.

[i]What can hide in a cupboard and kill you?[/i]

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Just got back from a mainly solo night ride so no

I see more people in one night in the summer than I have ever seen in all the winter nights I have ridden.

Been spooked a few times by deer, dogs, an owl once [ that was scary] and folk [ path pitch dark no lights with them neatly hit them] but never had anything bad happen.

It is not the darkness or ghosts that you should be afraid of but rather it is the living that will scare the shite out of you.

The living can cause much more pain to you physically while the darkness or ghosts are merely there minding their won business.

The living will mind your business by sticking their noses in your affairs. They are not only bunch of busy bodies but a pain in the backside. The bureaucrat ZMs are the worst ...

😯

Just back from a mixed hike/run in the wild woods in Northern Sweden. Ok so the trails were signposted, and it's not cold or anything, but it was still a little intimidating at times.

I think my state of mind is linked to my temperature. When I was moving well and the going was good, I was warm and I felt like I owned the woods. However stop for a bit to study the map or faff with something or struggle with some deep snow, start to get a bit cold and I felt pretty damn small.

molgrips - Member

Just back from a mixed hike/run in the wild woods in Northern Sweden. Ok so the trails were signposted, and it's not cold or anything, but it was still a little intimidating at times.

Interesting. Which part of Northern Sweden as I plan to visit that place if I have time this year.

Are you allowed weapon like guns in Sweden like they do in Finland? 😆 Compact Glock is your answer there if you can.

Doubt there are baddies in Northern Sweden but perhaps wild animals and I don't shoot animals.

Having watched too many episodes of xfiles and the outer limits im not a fan of dark woods... I generally have a constant fera that somethings always near....

Doubt there are baddies in Northern Sweden but perhaps wild animals and I don't shoot animals.

Sundsvall, it's not really north geographically speaking but they all call it the north cos they are all from Stockholm. Very few animals in evidence apart from the odd hare but I was more concerned about getting lost and being out all night than anything else 🙂

Pook remember Snowdon- walking back to the digs in the pitch black and I legged it ahead. I was trying to set up an ambushpoint to get you but you buggers caught up before I could

I remember Will worrying those sheep and falling over in that field when we turned our torches off. "Guuuuuuyyyyyss..... Come on...... Where are you??? Turn your torches back on.....guuuuuyyyyysssss"

Ah yes potty-mouth Will

Wow! Iron Maiden truly are awful aren't they? (I'd completely forgotten)